Young Ancients
by Cherokee Bonnefoy-Jones
Summary: The young Ancients meet Britannia/Albion, and befriend the newest member of their group. Gaul is always doing something stupid, Germania is quiet, as are Greece and Egypt, Iberia is hyper, and Scandinavia is shy. How does Albion cope with making such a wide variety of friends? This is from before the Roman Empire, sorry Rome fans. I just thought we needed some chibi!Ancients.
1. Chapter 1

Because I think we need something of the older Ancients as kids. I did a lot of reading before hand, so most of this is fairly accurate. Or as close as one can get without being a legit historian over all of the ancient cultures. Dunno why, but I have this belief in my head that Gaul, Iberia, and Britannia(whom I'll be calling Albion in this, as it was her first name before Rome came along) are cousins, because they all held Celtic tribes in their lands.

Human names:

Britannia/Albion - Bodecia (about 9)

Germania - Alaric (12)

Scandinavia - Skadi (6)

Iberia - Juanita (10)

Gaul - Beau (10)

Greece - Hera (13)

Egypt - Isis (14; Yes, Greece is younger than Egypt.)

I know, not all of the names are really _that _old - except Britannia, Skadi, Hera, Bodecia, Alaric, and Isis.

* * *

It was the rare time that Phoenicia had allowed her to go to his home, and she was anxious to meet the other children he knew. There were two older girls called Greece and Egypt, but the others were near her age - two boys and two other girls. He said the boys and one of the girls - Scandinavia - had hair like hers. She couldn't wait to meet them. Hanging off the side of the ship, the crew swore Albion would have fallen in at any time. The longer the girl stayed on board, the more the men found out about her adventurous spirit and desire to learn. That was good in a young country. It meant she had a chance. Finally, they set to port and Albion was hunting for a group of children. Whipping her head in every direction, she finally spotted a tall light haired and pale skinned boy with a girl that looked like him, only with wilder hair, two darker skinned and haired girls, and a pale boy with similar hair to her own and a pale girl with reddish-brown hair.

"Is that them?" she asked earnestly. Being an isolated island meant nothing to her in the least, and it was rare for her to see anyone like herself at her house. Phoenicia just pushed on her lightly, sending her in the children's direction, almost to the point that she would have collided with the taller of the two boys had he not acted quickly enough.

Before young Albion knew what was happening, a smiling face of a girl was in front of her own, startling her to the point of falling back if the boy hadn't been holding her. " Hi, I'm Iberia. The others are Gaul, Germania, Scandinavia, Greece, and Egypt," the reddish-brown haired girl introduced in an almost rushed voice.

"A- Albion." It surprised Phoenicia that she was suddenly so shy.

Noticing the younger girl's new-found discomfort, the older brown haired girl stepped in. "Is there another name we could call you? You may call me Hera, and Egypt is Isis."

"Phoenicia calls me Bodecia sometimes. He said some of the village women came up with it.

The other children were all smiling comfortably now as another picked up the introductions. "I am Germania, but you may call me Alaric, and my sister is Skadi." The named girl waved and stood right behind her older brother. Then it was the other two's turn.

"I am Juanita. Phoenicia told us you were Celtic as well?"

"Mm-hm."

The pale, wild haired boy just grinned at this information. "That makes all three of us cousins. Beau, by the way." He was definitely the most out going of them, next to Iberia who was probably just hyper. The oldest three - Greece, Egypt, and Germania - were more reserved and self-aware than their friends, while Scandinavia was shy and quiet, the most self-conscious of them for sure.

Together, the rag-tag group of children went to where they were staying while not in their home countries. Once settled on a pile of pillows, Beau quickly tackled Alaric, a small wooden sword out as soon as he stood. Beau vowed to one day beat Alaric as he lunged at the older boy who now held his own wooden sword as well. Bodecia took it by the others cheers that this was an everyday occurrence that both boys thoroughly enjoyed. If it wasn't the mock fight, then it was each other's company in general. She found it all to be quite amusing, much different than when she was with her own sister to be sure.

Eventually, Alaric was pushed back into a corner. All the stories she'd heard her men tell had this similar situation, where when an animal was in a corner it was easily killed. But Germania would never allow it, so he pushed forward with all the strength he could and knocked Gaul to the floor. Albion was surprised at this, sure the older boy would lose.

"Again, Alaric? How are you not tired of winning against me already?"

"Gaul, all you do is eat cheese and steal Hera's wine, of course I was going to win." The younger of the two stuck his tongue out at his friend and sat down like a normal person. Alaric was already leaning back and looked to be asleep. Even though she wanted to talk to him, Hera had grabbed her attention.

"I have a question. Do you see anything around Skadi? She claims to see things like trolls and 'sprites'."

"Um . . . . Yes, I do. I even have some of my own friends with me. Can you not see them?"

"No, none of us can. Not even Alaric, and he's her brother." Looking at Skadi, she saw the girl was accompanied by a small, green troll. She'd never seen a troll before, and had only heard stories about them from her faeries.

Some time later, Phoenicia allowed them all to run around the fishing village, as long as they stayed away from any humans that weren't directly sent from Phoenicia himself. Since the village was part of Gaul's house, he led them to the nearby forest where they wouldn't be bothered. All the while, the boy rambled on and on about his other neighbor that was slightly older than him. "He's a giant bully. You don't need to go anywhere near my southeast border. Etruscan doesn't know how to be nice. He's worse than Alaric." Said youth rolled his eyes at this, knowing that the other boy was exaggerating.

"Bodecia," Germania said to get the girl's attention. "What is you're island like?"

"It always rains there. But when it isn't, I'm in the forests playing with the faeries and some of the animals. And the spring is always so colorful, even when it rains." The way she spoke about her island home was like she spoke of a dream land. Germania's home was mountainous and full of its own forests, but they had a different feel to them, unlike Albion's. Scandinavia's home was cold and covered in snow almost all year, so she lived with her big brother until she was older and able to take care of herself. Greece's home was also full of mountains that divided her people, and she had a very tormenting neighbor as well in the form of Persia. Egypt, who was currently going through some issues with some of the older kingdoms, had only known the desert and Nile with the Delta in the north, with the occasional oasis.

"It must be nice not to have close neighbors," Hera commented. "You don't have to worry about wars as much as the rest of us."

"But it gets lonely. My big sister doesn't visit very often, and my only friends are the faeries. I used to think my sister and I were the only ones like us, and then Phoenicia found me and told me about all of the others like me. You six, and many others here on the mainland. I am glad to finally have someone to call friends that other people can see without thinking that I'm mad." A smile graced her face as she looked at the group of children, glad she could call them her friends.


	2. Chapter 2

It was the first warm day of that year, and Bodecia was visiting her friends again. Now that they'd all met, she started travelling across the channel when she went to the mainland. This time they were meeting at Isis' house, so she, Beau, and Jaunita were meeting Hera, Alaric, and Skadi in Crete so they could take a ship together to Egypt. As a peninsula came into view, she asked Beau about Etruria again.

"No, that's where Latium lives. Well, really, they live by one of the rivers, but that part's Latium's. I only met her once, but she's nice, I guess. Etruria wouldn't let her tell me her human name. Now," he said, while leading her to the other side of the ship. "That is . . . . Carthage?!" The slightly older boy sounded alarmed when he saw another ship coming their way to sail right beside them.

"Carthage!" Jaunita, on the other hand, sounded excited as she called out to the older boy sitting on the side of the new ship.

The Carthaginian shouted out something to his crew in his own tongue before grabbing a rope and swinging over. "Gaul. Why do you look like you're unhappy to see me?" The blond haired boy only crossed his arms and walked off, grumbling in his language, which Albion and Iberia slightly understood. The Carthaginian then smiled when he looked at the Iberian. "And why so happy to see me, Juanita? You should introduce me to your new friend." The girl just blushed slightly before doing introductions, adding in that Albion preferred using human names. "Then call me Hannibal, I live over there. Phoenicia is my father."

"It's nice to meet you. Phoenicia talks about you sometimes."

"Well, I'm his son, why wouldn't he?" Changing subjects, he inquired on where they were going.

"Crete to meet up with Hera, Alaric, and Skadi. We're going to Isis' house this time."

After learning that, Hannibal volunteered to go with them, saying girls such as them and poor fighters such as Gaul needed a proper escort. Gaul ended up keeping to himself most of the voyage because of this.

* * *

In Crete, Hera was trying not to look up at her sister. Okay, so the young woman had the land for the dress, but did she have to show it off? Gods of Olympus, she was glad she didn't dress like her sister. In her opinion, if one was going to wear a dress, one should at least cover their land. It was bad enough her people dressed the same as their country.

"Sister, please, do something about your land! Before Gaul gets here at least?"

Due to Germania's people dressing rather conservatively, he was uncomfortable with how Greece's older sister dressed, so he and his sister were in a room away from the two Greek women, and avoided any other women that dressed the same as Crete. Alaric was slightly surprised when his sister crawled into his lap. "Is there something wrong?"

"Tell me about the gods again?"

He knew what this meant. She wanted to hear about the frost giant goddess Skadi, whom she was named after. "After the gods had killed her father, the frost giantess Skadi went to Asgard bent on revenge on her father. The gods instead offered to make her father's eyes into star and allowed her to pick her husband from the gods, but she had to pick by looking at their feet. Njord had the most beautiful feet instead of Baldr, but they didn't get along, so they split and she married Ull, the god of skiing."

"Do many of your gods marry giants?" Bodecia asked him, her face slightly red, meaning she'd met Hera's sister.

"Now that you have me thinking about it, there are several. Where are the others?"

"Hera's still arguing with her sister while Beau's watching. Juanita and Hannibal are making sure the ships are tied up at the dock and giving the men orders."

"Carthage is here?" The girl just nodded, not sure if it was a good or bad thing. So far all Gaul had done was complain while Iberia had been more than okay with it. Since Germania and Scandinavia had very little contact with the young man, she wasn't sure if they got along well or not.

That evening, they were all treated to dinner by Crete, who thankfully had not been in attendance. Greece and Carthage had no problem reclining as they ate their meal, but the others had some difficulty with it. The others were used to sitting up in chairs that had backs to them, not practically laying on their sides. Actually, the boys had given up on the endeavor and sat up to eat, more uncomfortable with it than the girls, aside from Skadi who followed her big brother's example.

"Alaric, you know Isis is going to try and force you into her home's clothes. Furs are uncomfortable in the desert."

"I don't care. Even her clothes are more revealing than they should be. They're too thin."

"Alright, then wear some of mine," Hannibal suggested. "We're about the same size, so I don't mind sharing."

Somehow they had gotten the German to agree, and Isis was surprised when she saw them, mostly Alaric, wondering how they'd managed it. Looking at Isis and her people had shown Bodecia that Alaric was correct. Egypt's linens were very thin, taking several layers to hide anything.


End file.
